Disk images pack entire folders or disks into a single compressed file, either for transport across the Internet or simply for backup. They are Apple's preferred format for distributing Mac software. Disk images are also the only archive format whose contents you can directly access in the Finder--no third-party software required. DropDMG is the easiest way to create Mac OS X disk images, as well as cross-platform archives. Just drag and drop a folder or file and you're done. Or, you can drag an existing disk image or archive onto DropDMG to convert it to any of the other supported formats or to burn it to CD or DVD. DropDMG supports advanced options such as encrypted and segmented disk images, WYSIWYG layout with background pictures and custom volume icons, and rich-text license agreements in multiple languages. There are many time-saving features, and it can also be automated via AppleScript, the command-line, and Automator.

What is new in this release:

Worked around a bug in macOS 10.12.2 that caused a garbage character to be displayed in various pop-up menus.

DropDMG no longer posts to Notification Center for operations that complete less than a minute after being queued. This should help make sure that the banners/alerts that you do see are genuinely useful.

Made some changes to reduce the time it takes to open the Preferences window.

Logging is more robust on macOS 10.12.

Updated the German localization.

What is new in version 3.4.4:

Fixed a regression that could cause a crash when creating a disk image with a layout on Mac OS X 10.10 or earlier.

Fixed a regression where the System Fonts pop-up menu didn't work.

The new Save Diagnostic Report... command in the Help menu provides an easier way of recording error logs and other information to send to technical support (requires macOS 10.12).

Updated the Burn... and Signing sections of the manual.

DropDMG now removes the Show Tab Bar menu item and associated functionality on macOS 10.12, since they don't make sense for its user interface.

Worked around a problem with unexpected title bar accessory views.

Fixed a bug where DropDMG could incorrectly log an error about the Mac App Store receipt.

Improved the logging code.

Updated to Xcode 8.1.

What is new in version 3.4.2:

Removed support for creating .xip archives because macOS 10.12 can no longer expand .xip files not created by Apple. DropDMG will change configurations using .xip to .zip. Going forward, Apple recommends using signed .dmg files.

Renamed "Mac OS X" to "macOS" throughout the app and documentation.

Updated to Xcode 8.

Added the Sending in Crash Log Files section of the manual.

Updated the Italian and Spanish localizations.

What is new in version 3.4.1:

The Signing menu now groups the identities to make it clearer which type you should choose for .dmg files vs. .xip files. If no valid Developer ID identity is found, it tells you how to get one.

Added support for creating disk images that are signed for Gatekeeper, as Apple now recommends that Mac applications be distributed on signed disk images (requires Mac OS X 10.11.5 or later). Unsigned disk images are subject to Gatekeeper Path Randomization. This is described in the Signing section of the manual.

Added support for the .xip archive format, which lets you create secure archives that are signed for Gatekeeper (requires Mac OS X 10.8 or later).

Added the Verify Signature... command for checking disk images and .xip archives to make sure they are correctly signed (requires Mac OS X 10.11.5 or later).

What is new in version 3.3:

The Format pop-up menu now makes it clearer which compression algorithm each format uses.

Improved the way tooltips show file paths when the file no longer exists.

Improved the error reporting and debug logging for the command-line tool.

Improved the error reporting for the Software Update... command.

Improved the error reporting when a Mac App Store receipt cannot be found.

Made various code modernizations.

The >Command-line tool section of the manual describes how to use DropDMG with Xcode Server.

Updated the Licenses section of the manual.

DropDMG now disables full screen mode for its main window to work around a drawing glitch with Mac OS X 10.11.

Fixed a bug where creating a .sparsebundle or .sparseimage from a package didn't work.

Fixed a bug where Mac App Store receipts would not validate if the Mac's language was set to Hebrew.

Fixed a bug where if there were repeated errors saving the size of the Finder window, DropDMG would not properly clean up. Now it ejects and deletes the temporary disk image file.

Updated the German localization.

What is new in version 3.2.9:

By default, Mac OS X 10.11 required you to click an Options push button to see the options for the New from Folder/File..., Convert Image/Archive..., Get Image Info..., and Mount Image... commands. DropDMG now

Worked around a change in the Finder that caused disk image windows to be too short for the background picture when created using Mac OS X 10.11.

Worked around a Finder bug in Mac OS X 10.11 that could cause the disk image's icons to be misaligned if the AppleShowAllFiles option was enabled.

DropDMG will now check that the Finder saved the state of the window status bar and fix it if necessary.

The Activity window is now shown by default.

Added the Why doesn't the file I added show up on the disk image? section to the manual.

Updated the Create OS X Install Disk section of the manual.

Improved the error messages when the Finder doesn't save the proper window bounds for the mounted disk image.

If the LayouterCheckViewOptions esoteric preference is set, DropDMG will now check that the icon size, text size, and background picture were correctly saved into the view options (retrying if necessary). This can work around a rare bug that was reported in Mac OS X 10.11.

Fixed a bug where Mac App Store receipt validation used the current date rather than the receipt creation date.

Fixed a regression (caused by an Xcode update) where various dialogs and sheets did not show the lock icon to indicate that a passphrase was set.

Fixed the size of the distribution disk image window.

Updated code for Xcode 7.2.

DropDMG is now localized in Simplified Chinese.

We need some help localizing DropDMG. If you would like to help keep DropDMG's German localization up-to-date, please contact

What is new in version 3.2.8:

DropDMG is now fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

Added support for LZFSE-compressed disk images, which are smaller than the standard zlib-compressed disk images yet twice as fast to encode and three times as fast to decode (requires Mac OS X 10.11).

When you're editing a license or layout, DropDMG now adds a menu to the Fonts panel for choosing the system font, since there is otherwise no way of choosing San Francisco or the proper version of Helvetica Neue to match the user interface.

Updated the Create OS X Install Disk instructions for Mac OS X 10.11.

It is now possible to enter segment sizes larger than 50 GB in the Preferences window. (Previously, this was only possible via script.)

The Command-line tool is now installed in a different folder on Mac OS X 10.11 for compatibility with System Integrity Protection.

Added support for App Transport Security on Mac OS X 10.11.

The About, Software Update, and help windows now use the San Francisco font on Mac OS X 10.11.

Worked around an OS bug that could cause the volume to be busy when creating a device image on Mac OS X 10.11.

Worked around a bug in Mac OS X 10.11 that could cause a crash during Software Update....

Added some logging and esoteric preferences to work around problems hiding/showing the Finder's status bar.

Improved the Sharing Licenses and Layouts section of the manual.

Fixed a bug where Software Update... would continue offering updates in the same session you had held down the Option key.

Removed inadvertent debug logging for the Append version number feature.

Updated the French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish localizations.

What is new in version 3.2.7:

If the Finder didn't save the proper size for the mounted disk image window, DropDMG will now automatically retry several times. (DropDMG 3.2.6 would abort with an error, and you would have to retry manually.)

The Compact Image... command is now available in the contextual menu in the log.

Improved error reporting when a temporary folder cannot be created.

If DropDMG detects that one of its files is missing, i.e. that the application is damaged, it now presents a better error message.

What is new in version 3.2.6:

In rare cases, Mac OS X 10.10 does not properly save the size of the mounted disk image window. DropDMG can now detect when this happens and report an error so that you do not inadvertently deploy a disk image that doesn't look right. Usually, simply creating the disk image again will avoid the problem.

The Layouts section of the manual now describes a problem with the rightmost 1 point of the background picture not being displayed in the Finder. For maximum compatibility with different OS versions, it is recommended that you design your background such that these pixels are not critical.

Added the Mount Disk Image sample AppleScript.

The About DropDMG window now uses the new system font on Mac OS X 10.10.

The About DropDMG window now uses the system language names when crediting localizers, to reduce the number of strings that localizers need to keep up-to-date.

Fixed a regression where the command-line tool did not accept none for the encryption.

Fixed a bug where a change in system font meterics caused some text in the Preferences window to be truncated.

Fixed a bug where DropDMG did not show Retina-resolution 515x512 icons in the Layouts window. (This did not affect the created disk images.)

Updated the Italian localization.

What is new in version 3.2.5:

DropDMG now sets the Finder icon positions for invisible files, so that if the user has the Finder set to show invisible files (e.g. using AppleShowAllFiles) they do not cover up the background picture or the icons in your disk image's layout.

DropDMG now accepts background pictures with resolutions that are off by a fraction of a dot per inch, as thats's how some graphics programs save them.

DropDMG can now be told to mount disk images via AppleScript. You can control whether verification and file ownership are enabled, whether a shadow file is used, and whether the disk image is mounted at a custom location in the file system. For encrypted disk images, you can specify the passphrase directly or tell DropDMG to load it from a particular configuration in your keychain.

DropDMG now supports making the mounted disk image window smaller than the background picture. The window is always anchored at the top-left of the background picture but can be inset a certain number of points from its bottom and right edges. There is currently no user interface for setting the insets, but you can edit them by quitting DropDMG and editing the windowInsets value in the layout's Info.plist file.

Modernized lots of code and removed old code that's no longer needed for compatibility with legacy OS versions.

DropDMG now uses power assertions to prevent App Nap from slowing user-initiated operations when the window is in the background or blocked by the screensaver.

Fixed a regression where the Preferences window wouldn't open when running in Japanese.

Updated the localizations.

We need help keeping DropDMG's Italian and Japanese localizations up-to-date. Please contact dropdmg@c-command.com if you're interested.

DropDMG now requires Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later.

DropDMG's Automator action now requires Mac OS X 10.9 or later. This is because Xcode has dropped support for Objective-C garbage collection, but Mac OS X 10.8 and earlier only support garbage collected Automator actions. If you need to use DropDMG and Automator with Mac OS X 10.8 or earlier, you can run DropDMG 3.2.4.